On Monday, 4 March, French politicians voted 780 to 72 in favour of adding the right to abortion to France’s Constitution, an amendment that required a three-fifths majority, which was easily met.
Because abortion is now a “guaranteed freedom” in France, future attempts to modify or outlaw abortion will be difficult, if not impossible, meeting President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to make the nation’s 1975 abortion law “irreversible”.
Following the historic vote, the slogan “My Body My Choice” was projected on the Eiffel Tower.
Pascale Moriniere, the president of the Association of Catholic Families, called the vote “a defeat for women”, while the Bishops’ Conference of France stated that France “would have honored itself by instead including the promotion of the rights of women and children”.
Catholic bishops also “regretted that the debate did not mention the measures of support for those who wish to keep their child”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “France, under President Macron’s radical sickeningly proposed that abortion be enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, has become one of the most extreme pro-abortion nations in Europe, going as far as to advocate for abortion to be enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as bullying pro-life countries like Poland and Malta.
“The vote last Monday similarly trampled on the democratic rights of future French citizens who might want to introduce pro-life laws, which this amendment to the Constitution essentially prevents.
“It’s also clear that virtue-signalling French politicians have sought to distinguish themselves from the United States, which in 2022 reversed Roe v. Wade and gave back to US states the right to determine their own abortion laws.
“France has ultimately shamed itself, and it may be that history looks back very unkindly on Monday’s vote. But as the pro-life movement in the United States has shown, this is not the end of the abortion debate, which remains the great moral question of today.”
